On Bison and Motel Rooms

If, like us, you’ve recently found yourself walking by Princeton’s art museum and wondering why a deer is shooting you furtive glances before opening the minibar and helping itself to a cocktail, or why a horse is standing in front of its bed watching another horse on TV, wonder no more.The deer, and the horse, bison, owl, and host of other migratory creatures featured via projector every night on the screen outside of the museum, are part of Doug Aitken’s video installation, Migration (Empire). The museum acquired Aitken’s work in May as part of a campaign to collect and display modern and contemporary art across campus, and, choosing a well-trafficked site, installed a projector and a custom-made billboard on which to display the 24-minute video between dusk and 11 p.m. every night.Aitken is considered one of the foremost video artists of his time, and his works are known to focus on the notion of space, and the evolution of the relationship between humans and their environments. In Migration (Empire), Aitken focuses on the confinement of migratory animals in spaces that lack personality and place, as do the motel rooms in which his animals find themselves isolated.Said Kelly Baum, the exhibition’s curator:

"Migration (Empire) is a mesmerizing video that reflects poignantly and poetically on an experience endemic to modern society: displacement. Installing it outdoors on Princeton's beautiful campus during the height of the fall season gives viewers an opportunity to reflect on the work's message in a setting whose mix of the natural and the built accords perfectly with the narrative arc of Aitken's video."

So if you’re able to see past the fact that there’s a horse in a hotel room and a deer raiding the minibar, sit down on the museum lawn and you’ll find a profound statement on the state of society, humanity, and the reality of alienation.(image via: http://alaintruong.canalblog.com/archives/2010/07/31/18709768.html)